(Don't Have To Be) Alone
by KitKatt0430
Summary: After Ronnie's funeral, Cisco expects to have a quiet, awful evening alone. Instead he's called by a very drunk Caitlin who needs a ride home. So its still a pretty awful evening, really... but come morning, maybe they can both start to heal. Just a little.


Summary: After Ronnie's funeral, Cisco expects to have a quiet, awful evening alone. Instead he's called by a very drunk Caitlin who needs a ride home. So its still a pretty awful evening, really... but come morning, maybe they can both start to heal. Just a little.

Notes: For Prompt I2 on my DCTV Gen Bingo Card - Cisco & Caitlin

_**(Don't Have To Be) Alone**_

Caitlin calls him drunk.

Cisco has never heard Caitlin drunk before. Truly drunk, not merely tipsy. He's walking towards his front door where he's wallet, keys, and shoes are before he even registers that he got up off the couch.

Ronnie's funeral had been that morning. The day cold and foggy, frost on the ground. His parents didn't even bother to show up. Nor did Caitlin's mother, though its entirely possible Caitlin didn't even call her. What little Cisco knows about the woman comes down to Caitlin icily hissing that she was never good enough in her mother's eyes before sharply changing the subject. But Ronnie's parents had always been spoken of kindly.

There's no telling why they didn't come, if only because Cisco didn't want to pry. They did live several states away, maybe the travel was too much for them in their grief. But the fact that they didn't even try to show up hurt Caitlin badly.

In the end, the number of mourners at Ronnie Raymond's funeral had amounted to barely a handful. He saved the city, but no one cared.

Cisco had sat with Caitlin for a while afterwards. Silently watching Ronnie's headstone waiting for an absolution that would never come. But eventually they went to lunch and then parted ways.

Apparently Caitlin had started drinking steadily at some bar and they'd finally cut her off. She needed a ride home because they wouldn't give her back her keys.

"How rude is that, 'sco?" she asks, her voice slurred. "Those're my keys. Can't go home with no keys. Door won't open even if I ask nice. Can't go home anyway, though. Home is gone, its just apartment now."

"You can stay at my place tonight," Cisco promised, throat dry. "We can see if they'll give me your keys tonight, else we can get them in the morning when you're sober."

* * *

The bartender does give Cisco Caitlin's keys, after verifying that Cisco's the one Caitlin called to come get her. Cisco won't give her the keys either, but instead walks her very carefully back to where her car is blinking and beeping when he uses the key fob to search for it in the parking lot. Then he sort of pours her into the front passenger seat where she starts fiddling with the radio controls even though the car isn't even on yet. He has to buckle her in because she's too uncoordinated, but she does eventually lean back and let him actually reach the buckle. Her eyes have gone half lidded as he carefully closes the door on her and she's passed out entirely by the time he goes around to the other side to climb into the driver's seat.

Cisco sits there in the parking lot for several minutes. His arms folded over the top of the steering wheel, his forehead balanced against his arms.

Deep breaths. In and out and repeat.

If he focused enough on what he needed to do to get them home to his apartment, then maybe he wouldn't start crying.

Cisco steadies out enough that he feels good enough to drive and straightens up. Turns on the motor and heads out of the lot.

He can't look at Caitlin the whole way back, though. Or he really will start crying and that'll mess with his vision. Which… he needs to see to drive.

So he just sort of carefully avoids looking directly at her.

* * *

Caitlin wakes up enough back at Cisco's apartment complex to wobble her way to the elevator, down the hall to Cisco's apartment, and then straight into his bathroom where her body proceeds to try and purge some of the alcohol she drank.

Cisco gathers up pajamas for her to wear. His softest pajama bottoms, made out of the same fabric as the super soft, fuzzy blankets at Target. An over-sized black t-shirt with a "Starry Night" stylized Death Star no the front.

He has to cajole her into changing into the clothing. She just sort of flings off her shirt and skirt in front of him – which... alcohol killed Caitlin's sense of modesty, Cisco would've loved not to know that right now – and Cisco has to stop her twice from going after her bra next before she finally tugs on the t-shirt. Then he has to convince her the pajama pants aren't actually a blanket.

Maybe he should've picked a different pair of pants.

But, finally, Cisco gets Caitlin into the sleeping clothes, tucks her into his bed, and then goes to curl up on the couch and finally cry.

And he wishes, not for the first time, that he'd been in the pipeline instead of Ronnie that night. Caitlin wouldn't be falling apart like this if Ronnie were here instead of him.

* * *

"I feel like death warmed over," Caitlin groaned into her coffee the following morning. "I'm never, ever getting that drunk again."

"Vows every college student who later goes on to get exactly that smashed again down the road," Cisco drawled, nudging the plate of toast closer to Caitlin. "Don't promise not to get drunk again. Promise not to get drunk alone again. Okay?"

"Promise," Caitlin sighed, nudging the plate of toast further away.

"Eat your toast, Caitlin," Cisco ordered.

"Bossy," she grumbled, but did as he told her.

Cisco turns on the tv and queues up Firefly in his dvd player. Caitlin joins him on the couch when she's done eating and that's where they spend the rest of the morning, Caitlin curled up against Cisco's chest while he idly pet her hair. They don't really talk about anything, just let the show wash over them and pretend they don't know what ends up happening in the movie.

* * *

Notes: Caitlin does end up keeping that promise, though, since the next time she gets that drunk she takes Barry with her.


End file.
